Venture Crosses The Finish Line

There’s nothing quite as gratifying as completing an enormous project and the Venture Project has been precisely that. The programmers have completed every task and we’re in the process of packaging everything up and using the final product to generate the remaining content needed for the sales site. However, that doesn’t mean you have to wait to see what Venture can produce…

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Detroit Goes Public

After months of closed door and blackout negotiations, the musicians and management of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) went public last week to present their bargaining positions. On 7/30/2010, the DSO musicians leafleted a Meadow Brook Music Festival performance (copy, courtesy of the Detroit News) and both sides have presented their positions via an article by Lawrence B. Johnson in the 7/31/2010 edition of the Detroit News…

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An Insider’s Look Into Shop Talk

Ever since this blog launched in 2003, readers have always been more inclined to share thoughts via private email. Even though those exchanges regularly contain insightful content, their very nature prohibits public consumption. Nonetheless, guest blogger Chris Blair and I ended up having a fascinating exchange in the process of determining whether or not Chris would participate in this year’s guest blogging and ultimately, Chris decided that sharing the email exchange was in and of itself, a good guest author post…

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Educating for the Orchestra of the Future

Anyone attending the League of American Orchestra’s recent conference in Atlanta was surely struck by the industry’s determination to adapt and change. At the opening “Orchestra R/Evolution” session, attendees were polled and not a single vote supported the status quo. Russell Willis Taylor general session keynote the next day, “There Are No Crises, Only Tough Decisions,” took the reverse approach, lecturing attendees ironically on the best strategies for going out of business and fast.

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